Earth's Place in the Universe
- Life
Planets with hydrogen skies could harbor life
Microbes can live in a hydrogen atmosphere. This points to new space worlds that host alien life.
- Climate
A rainforest once grew near the South Pole
A forest flourished within 1,000 kilometers of the South Pole. That was a while ago, as in millions of years ago.
- Space
Rover finds ‘layer cake’ below ground on moon’s farside
China’s rover finds the moon’s farside is more rugged and cratered than the nearside. Now scientists want to know why.
- Space
Black hole mega-burp was truly explosive
Long, long ago, in a galaxy far, far away, a black hole blasted out 100 billion times as much energy as our sun ever will. One word for that: Wow!
- Earth
Newfound ‘dunes’ is among weirdest of northern lights
There’s a new aurora dubbed the 'dunes.' It’s weird and joins the ranks of black auroras, STEVE and other odd natural light shows.
- Climate
Study appears to rule out volcanic burps as causing dino die-offs
New data on when massive volcanic eruptions happened do not match when the dinosaur mass extinction took place.
- Space
See the sun in dazzling detail
These images show the sun as it has never been seen before. They come from the new Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope.
- Space
Our sun is neighbor to a giant wave of gas
The Earth and sun sit relatively close to a newfound thread of star-forming gas. That gas is being called the Radcliffe Wave.
- Space
This ‘Sombrero’ stole a big galaxy
The Sombrero Galaxy is an odd spiral galaxy that outshines all others within 35 million light-years of Earth. Its bright, iron-rich halo suggests it consumed one or more large galaxies.
- Physics
Glass beads help scientists puzzle out how baby planets grow
Researchers have mimicked the first stages of planet formation in the lab. All they needed were glass beads and a catapult.
- Physics
NASA’s Parker probe spots rogue waves and magnetic islands on the sun
The Parker probe’s first data is giving scientists a look at what’s to come as the craft moves closer to the sun over the next few years.
- Physics
Dust-shrouded monster is a snapshot from the early universe
Scientists have spotted a massive galaxy from the early universe shrouded in dust. It turned up in a small survey by the ALMA radio telescopes in Chile.
